Difference between revisions of "Debate:Was world war inevitable?"

Revision as of 11:46, March 19, 2007

Post Your Thoughts

Yes:

Probably Chain Reaction... All of the alliances made leading up to WWI made it somewhat inevitable. it was inevitable that something (The assasination of ) would spark a fight wich would trigger a chain reaction of all of the alliances between th european powers. If both sides had actually wanted to avoid war then maybe it would have been avoided. However that was not the case.

All it takes is one person determined to fight... In the case of WWII Hitler and the Japanese were determined to take over the world. (At least Europe and Asia) The rest of the world was not about to let that happen without a fight. This made WWII inevitable.

No:

War is almost never "inevitable". War results when both sides think they can win, and believe that the bloodshed is worth it. But both sides cannot win a contest so faulty information is part of the problem. Or one side could believe that to die fighting is better than to die in bondage.

For 1500 years Christians didn't fight each other in wars. What happened that made Christians believe in war against each other? I don't think that the Axis were Christian... Hitler's racism was based on a Darwinian worldview, (Survival of the fittest) and the Japanese had their own religion. (I may be wrong but I think they Believed that their Emperor was basically God)

ReplyHitler surely wasn´t a Christian but the Germans were 50,6%Protestants, 45,8%Catholics and 3,6%others...okay, that was 1950, but i think there is no big difference to the 40´s

There is always a chance... Hitler could have had a stroke and died. The emperor of Japan could have been assasinated; The war was not a sure thing until it already happened.

Ben

If you look at it that way, then nothing is ever inevitable.

The only inevitable thing is a promise of God; It was inevitable that Isaac would be born, it was inevitable that Jesus come, it is inevitable that the antichrist take over the world.

Ben

Contrary to the top notion, war can also be fought by states who don't expect a military victory. Some states may be willing to fight simply to prove their willingness to defend a policy (or even their sovereignty) simply as a means of deterrence against further acts of aggression. The Munich Analogy invoked by so many hawks nowadays may or may not be a legitimate argument these days. Democratic peace theory has proven relatively sound, so conflict between such states as were involved in WWII (if history were to repeat itself today) would likely be watered down by treaties or intervened upon by some sort of international order. As to the question of whether (I am assuming WWII, WWI was quite an unfortunate mousetrap of events) world war was inevitable, I have to answer no. Unfortunately by 1938 and the Sudetenland debacle, it was probably too late, and given greater international consensus on Wilsonian liberalism an effective intervention could have been possible in the early stages of German rearmament and Hitler's ascent to power. The pacific theatre is an interesting case. Post- Russo-Japan war Japan has been accused of being "asianist" to a fault. Though proletarian/communist movements were prevalent in Taisho-democracy era Japan, growing authoritarian power (totalitarian by some accounts, however the emperor Showa, or Hirohito, was merely a puppet for political elites) was able to quelch such uprisings and effectively redirect the growing mass-cultural mediums of Japan into those of nationalist predilections. For those interested in more Japanese innovation in the early use of mass media should check out an old film called Northern Lights, from 1941.

Brian

Reply Why does God have to come into everything!?? All those things are only inevitable if you take the bible as fact. The Catholic Church even acknowledges that the bible is not a history text book.ChrisF

Brigham's Homeboy Ben, Ben, Ben. Where did you read that Christians haven't fought each other for 1500 years? It was wrong. One could cite the case of the extreamely Christian Justinian (emperor of the Byzantine Empire)invading and conquoring Italy in the mid 500s AD, the litterally constant fighting between Italian states since the fall of Rome until Italian Unification in the 1800s. You could look at the Papal Sanctioned Normon Conquest of the very Christian England in 1066, the Hundred Year War in the 14th Century (between England and France), the 30 Years War-proportionally the most devestating war in German History and fought between Catholics and Protestants, the War of Spanish Succession in the 17th century, the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweeden starting around 1700, the Napoleonic Wars and even our own US Revolutionary and Civil Wars. All of these wars involved Christians slaughtering each other. One could certainly argue that Christians haven't grasped the full meaning of the Gospel, but it is quite obvious that neither Nazism or the Japanese Religion were necessary to push Christians to war.

That said, freedom of choice is a vital part of life on Earth. We are allowed to choose our actions, just not the consequences. Herr Hitler was a nut, and once he was in power it would have taken violence to oust him, or stop him, but the German people didn't have to vote him into power. Winston Churchill said once that there was never a war more easily prevented than World War Two. Someone just had to choose to act and it could have been stoped.

None of the Above:

Here's the real question, and it is one that perhaps can't be answered: Is a future world war inevitable?

--jane doe 23:03, 23 February 2007 (EST)

Don't see why world war would be inevitable. In 5000 years of recorded history, world war was a peculiar attribute of only one century: the 20th century. It was the product of philosophies of that century and it should be no more inevitable than the Black Plague would be.--Aschlafly 23:16, 23 February 2007 (EST)

"World War" was only used to describe WW1 and WW2. If you look back at Classical Antiquity (where the world population was about, say, 100 million or less), many of the wars then were far deadlier per capita than either of the world wars. And we're talking about man here... Not every person accepts Jesus. --Hojimachong 23:32, 6 March 2007 (EST)